World Water Day is celebrated annually on March 22^nd in order to focus international attention on the importance of freshwater and to take concrete steps for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Initiated by the United Nations, World Water Day invites countries all over the world to implement UN recommendations and evolve useful strategies to tackle the current global water crisis that is even more serious than the economic meltdown.

The theme for World Water Day 2009 is “Transboundary waters—Shared Waters, Shared Opportunities.” The theme draws our attention to waters that cross borders and connect us together—the world’s 263 transboundary lakes and rivers and freshwater supplies below ground level in underground aquifers. According to the United Nations, using opportunities to share waters can “help build mutual respect, understanding and trust among countries and promote peace, security and sustainable economic growth.”

Averting “Water Wars”

Together, all countries in the world share the responsibility for managing the transboundary water resources and preserving them for future generations. But with shrinking springs, rivers and lakes and with every country and every state within a country scrambling to satisfy its water needs, the threat of “water wars” is looming large.

The Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul this week, has ministers from 120 countries, green activists, scientists, engineers and campaigners discussing ways to kick start measures for averting a global water crisis and easing tensions between countries that fight over rivers, lakes and glaciers.

History offers instances where co-operation and not conflict, proved to be a favorable response to water management issues between nations.  The last 60 years have seen over 200 international water agreements and 37 cases of reported violence for the sake of water. There also have been ugly incidents of violence among states within a country –the classic case being the riots that erupted between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in South India over sharing the waters of river Cauvery.

Worrying Water Facts

      • 844 million people (approx. one in eight people) don’t have access to safe water supplies
      • 98% of water-related deaths occur in the developing world
      • 1.4 million children die due to diarrhea resulting from contaminated water every year
      • 43% of water-related deaths are attributed to diarrhea
      • Every 15 seconds a child dies of a water-related disease

Global Water Crisis

“A growing shortage of clean water across the globe may lead to conflict and war, and endanger economic development.” United Nations

Statistics prove that the demand for fresh water doubles every 20 years because of a rise in population and affluence. Unfortunately, pollution of fresh water sources, global climate change and sea water intrusion into ground water tables, drastically diminish fresh water supplies. With the onset of summer, in most Asian countries, the lack of clean water supplies and the  growing numbers of diarrhea patients in  hospitals (as is already happening in Dhaka), are pointers to the impending water crisis and its accompanying health hazards.

‘Waste Not Want Not’—Rain Water Harvesting

The shrinking rivers and lakes in every part of the world are testimony to the unscrupulous way in which we have messed up with ecology and used up fresh water resources without a care for the future.

In many developing countries the concept of rain water harvesting is only now slowly taking shape after the ground water levels turned entirely salty in most areas due to unrestricted sinking of deep bore wells for personal and commercial purposes.